Study of Type I ELM Systematics Using Soft X-ray Analysis on NSTX

POSTER

Abstract

NSTX plasmas exhibit a range of ELM behavior during H-mode discharges, including relatively large discrete phenomena classified as `Type I' ELMs. These ELMs can cause a reduction in the plasma stored energy of up to 15{\%} and can perturb the electron temperature profile by triggering a cold pulse that propagates radially inward on timescales of hundreds of microseconds. However, different operating regimes can exhibit smaller `Type I' ELMs which have a much smaller effect on the stored energy and electron temperature profile. The soft X-ray system on NSTX has the capability to examine the fast temperature perturbations and measure the propagation of these events via a `multi-color' technique which uses various X-ray filters to measure the incident X-ray spectrum with different energy cut-off thresholds. This technique is used to study the variety of `Type I' ELM behavior and relate the differences to NSTX plasma conditions.

*Work supported by US DoE grant DE-FG02-99ER5452

Authors

  • K. Tritz

    • Johns Hopkins University
  • D. Stutman

  • L. Delgado-Aparicio

  • M. Finkenthal

    • The Johns Hopkins University
  • R. Bell

  • R. Kaita

  • S. Kaye

  • B. LeBlanc

  • L. Roquemore

    • PPPL
  • R. Maingi

    • ORNL
  • S. Sabbagh

    • Columbia University